Chapter 16: Dead Lands Encounters

Other than the occasional goblin encounter, nothing seems to be dangerous around here anymore.

We are proceeding smoothly towards our destination.

But that’s not always true.

The ground shook. Something heavy must have fallen, or something big is coming.

It was a golem!

Wah! It tried to ram us, but luckily, we were able to get out of the way since it’s slow.

We can’t take that thing down physically. We need spells.

! !

Lina and I targeted the legs of the golem to immobilize it.

It punched its legs to break free of the freezing.

I thought it would continue to move by crawling, but it is divided into three smaller golems. Whoa.

But since they are smaller, they can take them down in a fight now.

Uryah! We charged them from two sides since we split up earlier.

The rock golems are strong at defending, but they are too slow to even land hits on us.

We keep hitting them in the knee to take them down, and when they fall, we crush their heads to end it for good.

Wooh. It’s finally over.

Just one normal rock golem caused us to use a lot of our strength.

As I was resting mentally, a roar could be heard from a distance.

It was a zombie dog.

You’re asking why undead will fight undead? I have no idea.

My theory is that if an undead has no leader, it will not do anything or go berserk.

Form a circle! I ordered my men.

The dogs are circling us, and both Lina and Bon are having a harder time hitting than with spells since they are fast-movers.

Every time a dog charges, we shift our shields and stab out our spears so that they get impaled.

After taking down a few, they seem to regroup and stand in line.

A vampire came out. A vampire lord even, because it is in a form that resembles a huge bat.

The vampire came out so fast that we didn't have time to hide.

Vampire Lord: “You trespass into my territory without any apparent reason and kill my pets. Who sent you here?”

A deep voice came from the vampire. Let us apologize here.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

~Note: I’ll put (t) in dialogs when it is spoken through telepathy.

Idmon: “(t) I am very sorry about this incident. Please spare this humble skeleton and its group.”

Vampire Lord: “So, you are under no orders then? Which faction are you from?”

Idmon: “I don’t know about the factions, but we were once minions of the Skeleton King.”

Vampire Lord: “Hmm… So, is it true, then? That the Skeleton King is gone?”

Idmon: “(t) It is.”

He made a thinking gesture, and then,

Vampire Lord, “Come to my mansion; I’ll give you a summary of the south region. You are going to the south, am I right?. Since you did not come to attack, that must be your only goal.”

Idmon: “(t) Yes, it is. Thank you very much.”

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Even though the vampire lord said it was a mansion, this place that he brought us was just a ruined house.

It is large but also broken in a lot of ways.

We sat in the room that looked like the lounge of the house.

.

Bon and Lina sat at my sides, while the rest of the group was outside the house.

Vampire Lord: “I have never planned on staying in the south region, so all I did was a short recon of the place.”

He took a small book.

Vampire Lord: “I’ve written it all here; you should take some time to read it and rest for a while.”

Idmon: “(t) Once again, we are in your debt. Thank you.”

After nodding, the vampire lord went out without saying where he was going.

Meanwhile, I started reading the book.

It is titled “South Region.” Direct huh?

As I was starting to read, two heads suddenly blocked my sight.

Bon and Lina had their heads bumped together, and it looked like they were trying to push each other away.

I hit the two in the head to make them stop.

“Sorry…”

“I apologize, Milord.”

(For Lina, I had to focus some negative energy on my hands to hit her.)

Geez. Now let’s see what’s in the book.

Oh. It’s written from the perspective of the vampire lord.

Vampire Lord: “The south region is inhabited by three races: the dwarves, the goblins, and the blind eyes."

First, the dwarves were mentioned. I asked myself before how the dwarves survived the sudden appearance of an undead army so near them.

The southern region was the birthplace of the undead.

I used my vampire powers to hide and listen to their stories.

From what I can conclude from the stories, they were once a vast and powerful civilization but fought a fierce war with the undead-turned South African humans.

I was shocked. The undead army that invaded the central region was massive. So even after the war with the dwarves, they were still that many.

The reason that the dwarves survived is that they dug a deep cave, and their greatest warrior lured the enemies to a false last stand at their former capital.

The story was epic. Its story revolved around the battle of 1000 dwarves vs. millions of undead.

The songs say that the battle lasted for five years. When the dwarves finally lost their food storage in the capital, they made a last charge into the enemy lines, ending their misery.

The source of the innumerable army of the undead was unknown. I did not find anything in the former castle of the Skeleton King except for

The Blind Eyes. I’m the one who named them that.

Crazy, perceptive humans that turned blind.

They have a strong sense of hearing and feeling. There was an instance where I flew near one of them, and it suddenly attacked me.

They are not that strong, especially for a guy who can see in the dark like me, but for others, it is another story.

It seems like they also eat mushrooms for survival and water from deep wells, just like the dwarves.

Their females are calm creatures, though. They give birth and take care of the children while the men go out and hunt some goblins or other unlucky creatures.

Lastly,

Goblins.

They are weak, vile, and quick creatures. These guys do not pose any threat to me or almost anyone if they are alone.

But when they multiply, it is terrible. One goblin mother will give birth to multiple goblins, as many as eight, and some of those kids will be food, while others will be trained as warriors.

Their strongest warrior would be the Goblin Chief, which is a particular version of their Hobgoblin evolution.

I could wipe them out, though, or I thought I could.

I tried once to eliminate all of the goblins that I could sense and see, but only a few months passed, and they had already numbered back to thousands.

Crazy, so I just left them be. Before, humans controlled their population, but when they all turned undead, the goblin menace was left unchecked.

The undead army primarily hunted the goblins, but they did not vanish. I wonder if there’s a unique factor that keeps them from going extinct.

Also, there is a map here that I would place inside the book. I have marked the remaining settlement of the Dwarves and the known settlements for the Blind Eyes and Goblins.

Hmm.

Dwarves, goblins, and blind humans.

Idmon: "I wonder which of them will accept us as an ally. I’m not ruling out the goblins and blind eyes since if they prove to be stronger than the dwarfs, I will ally with them."

As I was thinking more about this, the vampire lord came back.

Vampire Lord: “So, how was it?”

Idmon: “It was great; it helped us a lot since we won’t be surprised anymore.”

Vampire Lord: “That’s good.”

Idmon: “By the way, may I have your name, vampire lord?”

Pen: “Just call me Pen.”

Idmon: “(t) Okay, Pen, we would be going now, and if there is any way that we can repay you, we will go back to help you or come to us and ask for our help.”

Vampire Lord: “I will do that.”

Then, after that conversation, we said our farewells to Pen and went on with our journey.

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Pen: “You can do something that can help me.”